Briefs	E-mail PagePrint Version

EU BUSINESS LEADERS URGE RESTART OF TRADE TALKS
 
BRUSSELS - European business leaders have called on the European Union to abandon doubts about reviving the Doha world trade round and join other World Trade Organization members in seeking a rapid conclusion to the stalled talks.

"Now is the right moment for the European Union to energetically re-engage with trading partners on the substance of the Doha round," the European Round Table of Industrialists, a group of 45 senior executives of large companies from 18 countries, said in a joint statement quoted in EUBusiness.
 
The statement appears to mark strong disagreement at the top levels of European business with the stance taken by European trade commissioner Pascal Lamy since the failure of the WTO's meeting in Cancún, Mexico, last month.

It coincides with less public expressions of concern by some national business federations in the EU and by several of its member governments at what they view as a recent loss of direction in European trade policy.

Lamy, who negotiates on trade for the EU, has refused to commit Europe to returning to the Doha talks, saying it needs to reflect further on how to proceed. He has also called for urgent reform of the WTO.

The document said this month's call by the US and 20 other Pacific Rim economies for a resumption of the Doha round showed that "the will exists to get the multilateral negotiations back on track. Now the EU must also move."

US, ESTONIA SIGN BILATERAL INVESTMENT PROTOCOL

WASHINGTON, DC - The US and Estonia have signed a bilateral Investment treaty protocol.

The US is reportedly concluding such protocols to its bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with eight countries that are acceding to the European Union or are candidates for accession. The purpose of these protocols is to assure compatibility between the obligations of US BITs and the obligations of membership in the EU.

In September, the US and the European Commission signed an understanding to preserve US bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria and Romania.
 
The US-Estonian bilateral protocol represents an agreement on specific amendments to the Bilateral Investment Treaty with Estonia that was signed in 1994, and entered into force in 1997.

The BIT "helps to promote greater economic cooperation and to stimulate the flow of private capital by encouraging a stable framework for investment and clarifying dispute resolution procedures," according to the Office of the US Trade Representative in Washington.
 
The US is currently the third largest source of investment in the Baltic country.
 
COMMERCE SAYS IRON PIPE FITTINGS WERE DUMPED
 
WASHINGTON, DC - The Department of Commerce has ruled that imports of malleable iron pipe fittings from China were dumped on the US market.

In an recent fact sheet on its affirmative final determination, the department said the dumping margins ranged from 7% to 111%.

Imposition of antidumping duties requires final affirmative determinations both from the Commerce Department that dumping occurred and from the US International Trade Commission (USITC) that the imports injured or threatened a US-based industry.

The USITC final determination is expected by December.

In the meantime the customs bureau will collect a cash deposit or bond on any subject imports equal to the dumping margin; it would return the money after a negative determination.

The department calculated the dumping margins as follows: Jinan Meide Casting Co. Ltd., 11.35%; Beijing Sai Lin Ke Hardware Co. Ltd, 14.32%; Langfang Pannext Pipe Fitting Co. Ltd., 7.35%; Chengde Malleable Iron General Factory, 10.96%; SCE Co. Ltd., 10.96%; with a China-wide rate of 111.36%.

US imports from China of malleable iron pipe fittings - which are used in gas lines, oil refinery pipes, and building gas and water systems - amounted to $26.5 million in 2002.

Commerce also made an affirmative determination on what is called critical circumstances, relating to a surge of imports just ahead of a dumping investigation.

If the USITC concurs, any antidumping duties could be imposed retroactively to late February, 90 days before the Commerce Department's preliminary determination.

Go back, or read the latest briefs:

TRADE

empty